Former Ill. finance official indicted

The former executive director of a billion-dollar state bonding agency was indicted Thursday on charges of helping a political contributor and entrepreneur defraud General Electric Capital Corp. out of $10 million.

Ali D. Ata, 55, was accused of producing a bogus letter designed to help Antoin Rezko borrow the $10 million from the corporation in what prosecutors described as a plan to buy two groups of pizza restaurants at inflated prices.

Ata, of suburban Lemont, will plead not guilty, said his attorney Thomas McQueen.

Prosecutors already had charged Rezko with defrauding GE Capital in the deal, which involved the purchase of the restaurants at inflated prices and a transfer of their assets to himself and another buyer. He has pleaded not guilty.

Ata was named the executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority in January 2004. He left in March 2005. A longtime Rezko friend and business associate, he contributed $65,000 to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's campaign. The governor has not been accused of wrongdoing.

The indictment alleges that in February 2004, at Rezko's request, Ata signed a letter on finance authority letterhead that falsely made it appear an unnamed investor had applied for financing in connection with the purchase of pizza restaurants in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Ata knew that Rezko intended to show the letter to GE Capital to persuade the lending company to give him funds to take part in the restaurants' purchase, the indictment said.

In addition to the charge of defrauding GE Capital out of the $10 million, Rezko also has pleaded not guilty to separate charges that he worked with millionaire political contributor Stuart Levine to squeeze payoffs out of money management companies seeking state business.

Both Levine and Rezko also had been major contributors to Blagojevich's campaign.